Thrall looked cartoony, yet no one is complaining, so I think you're a bit (a lot) off on that one.

Thrall, like Garrosh, always looks like his jaw is completely separate from his skull. Like some kind of amalgamation of small alien creatures pretending to be an Orc and just barely pulling it off. Kinda reminds me of the bad guy from the first Men in Black movie.

Kinda shows how badly WoW graphics need to be updated, its really emberassing if you compare it to todays games

Compared to what games? It's a different style. Lots of new games look far worse and WoW is working on an engine that started development over 10 years ago. That's actually monumentally impressive. Sure it needs an overhaul, but part of the reason it is so accessible is due to the way they utilize their engine and graphics.

I hadn't thought about the Undead that way. Although if they got rid of the tears and holes in gear or just made it a selectable cosmetic I'm much happier with their original design than I am with how Tauren look now.

I just can't think of where they'd start with improving the Tauren model besides making it more high res. I think that's the difficulty. With most of the other races you have a starting point (previous iterations or poorly received elements - like human cleft faces) with Tauren, it's starting from scratch. I doubt they're beyond sketches for them, if they've even started with Tauren concepts at all.

Yeah, sadly the Taurens are probably low priority. We know that Dwarves, Orcs and Humans are at least ahead of them, and I imagine that Trolls and Night Elves are too since they can work from the Tyrande, Illidan (4.3), Vol'jin and Mar'li models. So the competition is basically between the Tauren, Undead and Gnome models.

Gnomes are much easier to recreate, because ironically their size and small body actually makes them easier to get a nice overview of how to handle, their only problem would be that they'd need quite a high poly and expressive face since it takes up more than 1/3 of their model.

The Undeads have all the rotting flesh which needs to be more than just small texture details now, and their incredibly many facial options would make them quite the handful. Then there's the bones too, making hair that looks like it's dying, boy am I glad I don't have the job of the guys tasked with modelling this.

The Taurens of course have the fur, especially their hunchback hair needs a lot of work. Their faces are likely the biggest challenges though, making them able to be really expressive will be quite a challenge. What goes in their favor is their very limited customization options though, which there's probably few of because Blizzard even had trouble making them back in the days.

I'd say that out of the Gnomes, Undeads and Taurens, the Gnomes are easiest, while the Undeads are probably the hardest. None of them are easy though, since all of them need to be started from scratch.

I wouldn't call Varian hideous in the cinematic, but he definitely felt off. The eyes and particularly the mouth. But he wasn't the only one that distracted me: Lor'themar is posed strangely; Jaina comes across as very stiff (though not as action-figure stiff as Lor'themar); and poor, poor Baine.

I blame the age of the models that Blizzard works with, though. Cinematics like that essentially use enhanced versions of the in-game models. Enhancement can only do so much.

Vol'jin steals the show. In all the ways.

By the way, to the person who asked, Anduin is 16 years old at this point. I can't find the source, but I know I read it from somewhere reputable.

Off-topic: Did anyone else cringe when Varian shoved Shalamayne into the floor? Somebody has to fix that hole now. T.T

Baine's the one who needs a new model. They had the grace to hide how awkward Gallywix looks by diverting attention to his killer top hat. And Lor'themar? What was with that awkward pose? >.<

I know! I was watching it for the first time, and my thought was, "Ew, why the hell is he standing like that?!"

Originally Posted by Chonar

I'm still waiting for it to stand up straight and turn a shiny blonde whenever he channels the spirit of Goldrinn.

Naw, it's too long. If anything, the hair tie would break, it'd get longer and he'd lose his eyebrows - but only after he'd stood there screaming "AAAAHHHHH!!!!!" For nearly 10 ,minutes. <3 DBZ

Originally Posted by Aliok

I wouldn't call Varian hideous in the cinematic, but he definitely felt off. The eyes and particularly the mouth. But he wasn't the only one that distracted me: Lor'themar is posed strangely; Jaina comes across as very stiff (though not as action-figure stiff as Lor'themar); and poor, poor Baine.

I blame the age of the models that Blizzard works with, though. Cinematics like that essentially use enhanced versions of the in-game models. Enhancement can only do so much.

Vol'jin steals the show. In all the ways.

By the way, to the person who asked, Anduin is 16 years old at this point. I can't find the source, but I know I read it from somewhere reputable.

Off-topic: Did anyone else cringe when Varian shoved Shalamayne into the floor? Somebody has to fix that hole now. T.T

I didn't, I thought it was awesome when he did that. It looked like it didn't go too far in anyways, I don't think the shorter blade was in the ground.

Honestly, all the leaders save Thrall and Vol'jin need some sort of update. Baine needs a major one (and should look like is damn concept art: http://imgur.com/X8WiRZD), Gallywix and Lor'themar need their own, unique models (Lor'themar does have the scar/eyepatch, but that's the extent; same with Gallywix's hat). Sylvan as could use a poly count increase, but otherwise she looks fine.

Same with the Alliance. Jains looks damn scary (not in a good way), Varian's armor needs to be actual armor (face needs to be touched up, but I like the scars), Tyrande looks mostly okay (get rid of the damn high heels, she's a warrior-priestess, not an Amazonian fashion model). The dwarves need unique models, Velen does as well; Genn should get both unique Worgen and Human models. And Mekkatorque - don't even get me started.

Honestly, every character race, short of the Cata ones and Pandaren, are in desperate need of updates. The only Worgen and Goblins who need to be changed are the faction leaders. Every other race needs a unique faction leader model on top of actual model updates.

Off-topic: Did anyone else cringe when Varian shoved Shalamayne into the floor? Somebody has to fix that hole now. T.T

If they followed traditional repair times, that mark from his Sword would be there 5 xpacs from now. Luckily for Org dwellers, they won't even put the hole there in the first place b/c they don't care to do neat stuff like that anymore. Thankfully the original team got in the bit of blood and the ambient easter egg in the throne room going into UC. Things like that don't happen enough anymore.

The scar is actually rather annoying. What are the chances that a blow of that sort would leave a perfect, symmetrical disfigurement like that?

"Okay, Varian, hold still now. We don't want this scar to look flawed in any way..."

That's one of my biggest complaints in most Japanese stuff that has scared faces. Especially those with a target audience that starts low. (13-35, that kinda thing) So many people end up with perfect, symmetrical scars and no complications from them. No ruined sinuses. No permanent eye disfigurement that isn't just complete blindness. Never a chronic, unending pain in their mouth. Just "oh my skin is brown in a thin streak across a nice, accentuating area."